And We're Off

Maine, 2014

After an epic drive, we got to Maine just after 1 a.m. last night. Hard to imagine we once did that drive every weekend some summers, without much of a thought and with nothing but a hastily packed weekend bag.

In any case, here we are! Ozzy met his little cousin Sebastian this morning (who was born just 19 days after him.) Cousins...I can't stand it, it's so cute.

School's Out

Williamsburg, 2014

Okay, nobody is in school here, but still. Today feels like a school's out kind of day.

Trying to get us semi-organized and packed for the seven hour journey to Maine tomorrow, where we'll trade iced coffee on tap for dark & stormys on tap and 'Art is Trash' installations for sailboats, rocky beaches, and sea breezes.

Axel has been to Maine several times now, but this will be the first year that I think it will all register with him. He's been reading Soundings magazine with his papa and looking at pictures of his many, many cousins in preparation.

I am not joking...including our two there will be ten children under the age of ten together there for most of the summer (and that's just the first cousins.) If you count second cousins and beyond, there will be...16?! Plus 6 aunts and uncles, lots of adult cousins, grandparents, friends and more.

We're going to be celebrating our tenth anniversary together next month (our third wedding anniversary too), and a host of birthdays...Will's 34th, Axel's second, and my 36th. Shhhhh!

But even as I feel a little itch of homesickness-in-advance, I love the idea of countering the madness of the city with something totally different, and Maine is exactly that. Although it is wild and woolly in some respects, I will have WiFi, so there will plenty of photos and reports to come.

Antics

Williamsburg, 2014

Three more nights left in the city until our big Maine adventure and so we have been squeezing every last drop out of summer in Brooklyn. Last night the rooftop terrace at The Ides was a very special spot to be; it was one of those gorgeous New York nights where you think, 'I'm never leaving!' Some days I truly love everything about this place (even the overpriced cocktails.)

Then it was on to a late dinner at Paulie Gee's with an old friend...pretty insanely good pizza though it's no Roberta's.

Oscar: 16 Weeks Old

Oscar, 2014

It's summer rules around these parts...later bedtimes, World Cup viewing parties, dinners on the porch (Oscar is rolling with it all.) Here's a look back at his big bro at the same age.

Etc.

Williamsburg, 2014

I am amazed, time and again, at how much we manage to pack into a day (exhaustion is par for the course around here.)

From about 7 in the morning until 8 at night, we are constantly on the go...Axel's monologue this morning kind of sums it up: 'Bunny, helicopter, playground, soccer, swimming, birthday cake. Bunny...birthday cake?!'

Summer

Williamsburg, 2014

Axel's been getting up early and can't easily be contained within the confines of our apartment so lately we've taken to heading down to the park in the mornings before Will leaves for work. The sprinklers are on and it's so cute seeing Axel brave the ice cold water.

And while the fall, and nursery school, are still mercifully far away, I thought this article on the Common Core was interesting.

Blondie

Oscar, 2014

Oscar is making great leaps and strides by the day, grabbing onto anything and everything for dear life, laughing (sort of), getting plump and pink, and sprouting new blonde fuzz everywhere. He is definitely losing that newborn chicken look.

Name Game

Williamsburg, 2014

Nope, I have no news to report (wipes cold sweat from brow), but I have been keeping tabs on some of the more unusual baby names I hear around the neighborhood. Not included are the more common ones (like Elliott, Olivia, Ella, Sophia, Henry, Luca, and Harper. I hear those PLENTY.)

Boys:

Axel (obvs)
Sebastian
Jackson
Odin
Covin
Cyrus
Jasper
Moses
Hendrix
Seamus
Jagger
Leo
Summit
Oliver
River
Sylvan
Jude
Wolf
Decker
Spike
Cash
Christo
Everett
Reese
Harlem
Felix
Milan
Ozzie
Carrick
Harley
Calder

Girls:

Aria
Ione
Ever
Lavender
Lola
Isa
Gretel
Mila
Livia
Ivy
Violet
Beryl
Beatrix
Maya
Cleo
Ione
Maeve
Zella
Lyric
Isla
Orly
Elodie
Cordelia
Emilia
Aya
Lulu
Kora
Angelica
Zoe
Valencia
Ursula
Cass
Stella
India
Alma
Zenta
Minty

The Tropics

by Jami Saunders Photography

Here we are, the four of us!

This morning we got a little peek at some of the pictures our friend Jami Saunders took of us on holiday last month. Now I hate sitting for pictures (it's so hard not to be self critical.) But still, I love having them after the fact, especially of me and the boys since I am so often the one taking pictures from day to day.

Anyway, it was no small feat capturing us in action, between the sun, sand, surf, and general chaos we tend to bring everywhere we go. But don't we look relaxed? It makes the madness of travel look kind of easy, no?

And I love looking back at the shoots she did of us with Axel at eight days old and on his first birthday. We keep multiplying, it seems.

Go to New York

Williamsburg, 2014

Gah! I love pretty much every word of this essay, about a mom's wish that her kids will move to New York one day.

When I was a teenager and in university, I knew that someday I'd move to New York. There just wasn't any other option I could envision. Today I'm such a different person than I was when I arrived here at the ripe old age of 22, and my days of walking every square inch of Manhattan to avoid the subway fare seem long distant.

But if there is ever an act of faith it's choosing to raise your kids here. And yet I sometimes lament that by giving Axel and Oscar a New York City childhood, a Brooklyn childhood, I'm depriving them of the sheer joy that comes from discovering the place for yourself as an adult.

I guess someday they will discover it on their own terms, and that will be enough. Here is a little excerpt:

"I think about what I want to really tell them, really teach them, and it is this: Go to New York.

Go there in your 20s and be like everyone else who ever packs a bag and wonders if they’ll make it: Sit with your own uncertainty. It is the first thing New York City greets you with and you should know this feeling because most of life is spent in the gray and you won’t always succeed. You’ll need to tease out that feeling. Will it be fight or flight? Do you run when you don’t know the answer or outcome? Or will you stay, not knowing how it will all turn out, not knowing if any of it will be good, certain all of it will be hard, but just staying because you have mettle enough to find out."

Relaxel

Williamsburg, 2014

Axel is still in constant motion most of the time, but lately he's started to take an interest in...lounging.

He loves blankets and pillows and climbing under the covers of the little twin bed in his room and into our bed and saying 'I'm tired.'

Alas, it doesn't always mean what it seems to mean, but it's still pretty endearing.

Heading North

Williamsburg, 2014

We have just a handful of days left until we head to Maine for the bulk of the summer, and although I'm excited for us and for the boys, who will be surrounded by nine (!) little cousins under the age of ten, it's a little daunting too.

I won't miss that New York summer smell, that's for sure, but I am a little nervous for the shift in our routine. Most days, I feel like we've barely got a handle on things with everyone sleeping in their own beds.

We have our little routines here too...the things we do when someone is crying, like walking around the block in an iced coffee haze. We have our playgrounds, packed with Axel's little friends, and the comforts of the city, like 24-hour delis for when we forget to buy milk (which is often, considering we go through about a gallon a day.) And there's Motorino for emergency pizza deliveries. Living somewhere where you have to drive to run errands or plan ahead is alien to us, especially since Axel falls asleep in the car seat in an instant and then will not nap later on.

Of course, we'll figure it out. These are just the little things that keep me up at night lately...how to hang onto the logistical tricks that keep us all (mostly) sane.

And then, I suppose, part of my nervousness about the transition is because of how much will change when we come home. I'll go back to work and Axel will then go to nursery school. It feels like there's a lot afoot. I will really relish some time by the seaside to absorb everything that's happening, but it's hard to accept that this little chapter will soon be over and that I'll need to muster the energy for what's ahead.

Oscar: Fifteen Weeks Old

Oscar, 2014

On Sunday, Oscar turned fifteen weeks old and rolled over for the first time (from back to front.) He isn't quite sure what to do when he gets there, but he's got time for that...

And here's Axel at fifteen weeks, two Thanksgivings ago. I remember that holiday week, feeling pretty bedraggled, so I guess the sensation that we're swimming upstream isn't anything out of the ordinary (just a bit amplified by toddler nuttiness.)

Father's Day

Williamsburg, 2014

I'm not entirely sure if these are two female lions, but in any case, Happy Father's Day, Will! Axel and Oscar are two very lucky boys.

Here & There

 

New York, 2014

Williamsburg is nuts this weekend between the Northside Festival, Williamsburg Walks, and the World Cup...there was a little party in our building as well as more than the usual degree of mayhem on Bedford Ave.